A transformative force is now reshaping marketing: artificial intelligence. AI-powered marketing has moved beyond experimentation into a strategic growth engine, fundamentally changing how brands engage customers, allocate resources and create value. As adoption accelerates, marketers who fail to embrace AI risk falling behind competitors who are already operating at a different speed, scale and adaptability.

AI in marketing has the potential to transform the marketer into someone who designs systems, guides intent, and shapes customer relationships across the entire lifecycle. Rather than replacing marketers, AI augments them by handling complexity, volume and continuous optimization, freeing humans to focus on creativity, judgment and emotional connection.

The CMO Council has identified AI-driven marketing as one of the most consequential opportunities facing modern marketing leaders. To support this shift, new research, resources, and best-practice frameworks are emerging to help CMOs understand how to integrate AI responsibly and effectively. These initiatives curate insights on adoption trends, use cases, governance models, vendor ecosystems, and real-world performance outcomes.

AI-powered marketing encompasses a wide range of capabilities, including predictive analytics, generative content, autonomous campaign optimization, real-time personalization, and agentic workflow orchestration. These capabilities operate across channels, allowing brands to sense and respond to customer behavior in near real time. AI systems can analyze vast data sets, identify patterns humans can’t see, and take action continuously without fatigue.

No other marketing capability offers the same combination of speed, adaptability and continuous learning. As markets fragment, buyer behavior shifts, and AI-mediated discovery becomes commonplace, AI-powered marketing gives brands the ability to evolve in real time.

For CMOs, the opportunity to partner with AI while preserving human creativity, ethics and meaning will define the next era of marketing leadership.